Archive for April, 2006

Beauty and the Beast

Sunday, April 23rd, 2006

The only reason we stopped in Osorno was because we missed our bus across the border to Bariloche. It was already late in the afternoon and we had no idea what was available to do in town so we just walked around. We didn’t hope to find much, but as usual we got more then we bargained for. As it turned out, Osorno was home to several enormous, marvelous and monstrous at the same time, concrete churches which came in amazing contrast to the petite wooden churches we just saw on the Island of Chiloe.


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Secret of the Island

Sunday, April 23rd, 2006

Chiloe, in addition to being an island which is a cool fact in itself, is known for its interesting architecture. The fisherman communities scattered around the main island and many small surrounding islands have charming wooden churches some of them being 200 year old and preserved as UNESCO World Heritage sites. Another architectural attraction are the waterfront houses on stilts. These together with the promise of fresh seafood, put Chiloe on our “must see” list. Often half the fun of seeing a place is getting there. But getting there meant a long and exhausting 29 hour ferry ride, so one can hardly call this fun.
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Secret admirer

Saturday, April 22nd, 2006

We were wondering who bought that one T-shirt!
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Кой-I-aquí? (Coyhayque)

Monday, April 17th, 2006

Boring, expensive, but quite tranquil Coyhayque is the biggest city on the Carretera Austral we’ve hit so far. Given, of course, we started only a few days ago, but according to the map, it will also remain such until we reach Puerto Montt. Or may be I should say if we do, as our plans change on the fly all the time.

If not for Maira and Javier, the Chilean doctors who gave us a ride here, the stopover would be like any other. Check e-mail, update our location, make sure we are not missing anything important, and find the cheapest way out. This time though, we didn’t get off that easy. The guys invited us to a little barbeque at their house, and we hang out with them and their friends (who don’t speak a word of English) till the fire was no longer able to keep us outside.
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Horsing around all the way to the top

Friday, April 14th, 2006

Now then, let’s see. We’ve traveled by plane, boat, bus, canoe, car, bicycle, train and just by plain old foot. Now, just to mix it up, how about we try, oh, I don’t know, a horse? Not really that outrageous of an idea, actually, especially considering that we are still deep down in Patagonia surrounded by incredible beauty unreachable by any other means of transportation.

Here, to Villa Cerro Castillo, we’ve traveled by finger – hitching that is. Relax mom, don’t worry, we’ve been careful about it, agreeing to get into a car only if there was a doctor or two present and only after a an hour or two long interview. On the ferry we took from Chile Chico to Puerto Ibanez, the Captain had asked a very nice Chilean couple, a geologist and a pediatrician, if we could sit in their car during the two hour long ferry ride, as the boat was mainly intended for transporting vehicles and for mere mortals like us the ride could be quite wet and windy. At first we were afraid the language barrier would create some awkward silences, but our Spanish didn’t let us down. We’ve discussed everything from family to the local news and even got a dinner invite if we ever get into Santiago. Actually, we got along so well that after the ferry they gave us a ride almost to the village of Cerro Castillo where we began walking the remaining eight kilometers, but caught another ride from a local man with a trailer full of hay. Since the ride didn’t take that long, we didn’t subject the man to our very selective screening process, but for all we know he might have been a veterinarian.



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Cave of Hands

Wednesday, April 12th, 2006

Three days we waited to see this damn cave located just a few hours from the small town of Perito Moreno. The first day, the 10th, we found out it’s impossible to rent a car in town and the only tour going out is full. We did book a tour for the next day, the 11th. But when nobody showed up to pick us up in the morning, the boys went to the tour office and found out that due to too much rain the roads became too bad even for 4×4 and the guide decided to cancel the trip and just didn’t tell anyone. And if that wasn’t bad enough, it was Shurik’s Birthday and he was really looking forward to seeing these ancient drawings on the cave’s walls. Also, all this waiting was too much of a time waist for Alon, especially in a town with not more then one internet café that was very slow and kept disconnecting, so he left for Bariloche. For us it was just as well, because from here we were planning different routes anyway.

On the third day we finally got to the cave and witnessed first hand this nine thousand year old drawings which are recognized by UNESCO as World Cultural Heritage.


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A street car named Olga

Monday, April 10th, 2006

The bummer: Spending a day killing time by making a map for a town that doesn’t seem to have one, only to find out later that two and a half hours away, in The Cave of Hands, there are color copies of a perfectly good map. (My map included.)

The highlight: Harry Nauta, a very nice English speaking local man with a Russian UAZ minivan named Olga. That made us think, wouldn’t it be cool to buy an old car like that in Russia and travel the world in it?


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El Chalten, Argentina

Saturday, April 8th, 2006

Weird time was spent in El Chalten starting from the bus that brought us there, where we met Genevieve – an Australian born who grew up in Hong Kong and lived alone with her ten year old brother from the age of twelve in a house of their own. Her story is extraordinary, although I don’t think I’m at liberty to tell it. However, I do have her permission to show you a tattoo of hers which is very appropriate for a citizen of the world such as herself.




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The River of Ice

Wednesday, April 5th, 2006

Glacier Perito Moreno, also known as The Shattering Glacier, was not a terribly striking sight (perhaps due to the bad weather), but definitely worth seeing nonetheless. Throughout the day, many small pieces separate and fall into the freezing water below, but if you are really lucky a small mountain sized piece will break off and with a thunder like sound crash down and cause an impressive tidal wave.


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To W or not to W?

Sunday, April 2nd, 2006

Actually, the question was more like to Circuit or not to Circuit. I know it sounds complicated, but it’s really not, so just bear with me. The two best and most popular treks in Torres del Paine are “The Circuit”, which goes in sort of a circle hitting all the important sites, and “The W”, which is a part of “The Circuit” that takes you to the most important parts and from a bird’s eye view looks just like the letter W. Now, this is a huge national park, and only the W takes four-five days; so when I heard we are doing the week-week and a half Circuit I pleaded, cried, stomped my feet, but nothing helped. I did think of fake fainting to underline my protest, but though that would leave me with no dignity at all, so I didn’t.


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